Teaching a Fish to Jump the Hoop?

[RoxMad]

I've spent a lot of time acclimating my Parrot Cichlid, Pico, to the
feeding wand and ensuring that he knows to approach it/follow it, etc.
He took a little while to learn that he had to approach the wand to
get a reward, but "following" training came quickly and he had it down
within one day. I just started hoop training today, and we've only
done 2 sessions, but he's progress so quickly already! He is
completely comfortable with the hoop, and easily followed the wand
through it during the first session. In our second session, he was
excitedly biting the hoop apparatus when I lowered it into the tank
and easily crossed through the hoop to reach the reward on the other
side, and even went in the opposite direction. While I was reloading
the wand, he went through the hoop on his own, though I don't think it
was because he knew what to do, he was simply swimming through it to
get to the other side of the tank. But still! :)

His tank is kind of small, and even the shortest hoop extension makes
the hoop stick out of the water a little. I also made the hoop really,
really big so that he wouldn't be as nervous about it. It made me
wonder whether I could use the longer extensions to eventually move
the hoop a little out of the water at a time so that he could
eventually jump through it. I'm not talking super acrobatics, but
maybe have the bottom edge of the hoop submerged just enough so that
he has to clear the water a bit to go through it and doesn't have
difficulty finding it (I'm thinking Karen Pryor's Snell's window
issues.). He definitely has a natural tendency to jump, and sometimes
jumps to get my attention or when he's aggravated (because I didn't
feed him when he thought I would!). I was curious as to whether anyone
has tried to shape this type of behavior in a fish before?

[Dean Pomerleau]

Sounds like Pico is doing great!  But be very careful about encouraging your fix to jump out of the water, even a little.  I was doing the same thing with my Albino Oscar named Snow, until he jumped clear out of the tank and onto the floor one day when I was standing nearby getting ready to train him!  Luckily I was able to scoop him back into the tank quickly, but he could have been seriously injured, and if I hadn't been there...

--Dean

--------------
Dean Pomerleau
Founder & Chief Fish Trainer
Fish School, Inc.

[RoxMad]

I'm glad to hear that it can be done!! We've only just begun normal
hoop training, so this is a ways down the road. :)

That's good to know; I hadn't thought about that. Pico has a top on
his tank at all times unless I'm training him, so I'll always have an
eye on him when the top's off. It's a good thing to be aware of that
possibility, though, so you can look out for it! I may wait until I
get him a bigger tank, since he's a pretty small fish, and that may
reduce the risk factor since he wouldn't be able to jump half way
across the tank.

On Oct 9, 3:42 pm, Dean Pomerleau <deanpomerl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Sounds like Pico is doing great!  But be very careful about encouraging your
> fix to jump out of the water, even a little.  I was doing the same thing
> with my Albino Oscar named Snow, until he jumped clear out of the tank and
> onto the floor one day when I was standing nearby getting ready to train
> him!  Luckily I was able to scoop him back into the tank quickly, but he
> could have been seriously injured, and if I hadn't been there...
>
> --Dean
>
> --------------
> Dean Pomerleau
> Founder & Chief Fish Trainer
> Fish School, Inc.
>

[RoxMad]

Pico has accomplished swimming through the hoop, so now I'm trying to
slowly raise it out of the water. I put the next highest pole on the
hoop, but I don't think the longest pole is going to raise it out of
the water enough. I know you said you were working on this with Snow,
who I'm sure is in a tank deeper than mine. What did you use to make
the hoop stick out of the water?

On Oct 9, 3:42 pm, Dean Pomerleau <deanpomerl...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Sounds like Pico is doing great!  But be very careful about encouraging your
> fix to jump out of the water, even a little.  I was doing the same thing
> with my Albino Oscar named Snow, until he jumped clear out of the tank and
> onto the floor one day when I was standing nearby getting ready to train
> him!  Luckily I was able to scoop him back into the tank quickly, but he
> could have been seriously injured, and if I hadn't been there...
>
> --Dean
>
> --------------
> Dean Pomerleau
> Founder & Chief Fish Trainer
> Fish School, Inc.
>

[Dean Pomerleau]

> What did you use to make the hoop stick out of the water?

I wasn't working with Snow on jumping through a hoop out of the water, just jumping out of the water.

If you REALLY want to use the hoop out of water, you can always hold the pole in your hand and put the hoop just over the water.

--Dean

[RoxMad]

> I wasn't working with Snow on jumping through a hoop out of the water, just
> jumping out of the water.

Ooohhh, haha.

> If you REALLY want to use the hoop out of water, you can always hold the
> pole in your hand and put the hoop just over the water.

Very true. Thank you! Pico is coming along so well! It's so odd that
he took so long to approach the wand and now picks up things like
swimming through a hoop within a few days! I barely had to work with
him on swapping the wand to the other side of the hoop; he kind of
just figured out the whole thing on his own! Now, when I put the hoop
in the water he a) jumps at my hand as I lower it and b) continuously
swims back and forth through it; I can't load the feeding wand fast
enough!